In daily life, people have been used to implement real-time communication by means of communications technologies. More and more communications tools may be used to conveniently implement real-time communication between users, and an instant messaging tool is a common communications tool used by people.
In an instant chatting tool, there are mainly two chat manners as follows:
One manner is a point-to-point chat between two persons. Generally, a chat window of two persons is displayed, and chat content is displayed by using the chat window. If a user needs to end a current chat and selects another chat object, the user usually clicks to close a current chat window first, and then open a new chat window.
Another manner is a group chat among multiple persons. Generally, all members in a group are displayed on a right sidebar of a chat window, and all chat content is displayed on a left sidebar of the chat window. Because all the members in the same group can browse all the chat content in the chat window of the group, for each user in the group, a chat within the group cannot be targeted to a particular chat object or some chat objects. If a user in the group needs to select one or more users other than some users in the group, generally, the user needs to create a new group or establish a temporary discussion group first, adds objects that the user wants to chat with into the new group or the temporary discussion group, and then chats with the one or more objects that the user wants to chat with.
In the foregoing chat manners, in the manner of a point-to-point chat between two persons, the user needs to end a chat window first and then opens a new chat window, that is, two operations are required. As a result, it is inconvenient to operate. In the manner of a group chat among multiple persons, the user needs to select one or more objects that the user needs to chat with into a new group or a temporary discussion group first, that is, multiple operations are required. As a result, it is inconvenient to operate. In addition, the manner of a point-to-point chat and the manner of a group chat among multiple persons performed by the user are totally different chat manners. The user can chat by selecting only one manner. The two manners have no relationship, so that the user cannot change the chat manner at any time. In addition, in the foregoing chat manners, the user can chat by using only an identity set by the user. For two parties or multiple parties in the chat, the user cannot change the identity of the user during the chat.